Laia’s graduation also involved staying at my parents and cleaning out some boxes that were in the rat infested basement. I found many vintage artifacts there-my sister’s giant stuffed bear, old bathroom rugs, all my old artwork, and a box of pictures. All my photos from childhood, teenageredness, and college were in there. This was a most excite archeological find!

Today’s photo tour will be of some of my horses from 1978-1988. That’s a rough guess on years, but I think it covers Wilbur, Richard, Gumby and Star. There were lots and lots I rode during this time that were certainly not mine, some I may have claimed were mine, some I may have borrowed without permission, but we will concentrate on this group today.

Here’s our family dogs, Ruffle and Beau. Beau went everywhere with me and I used to pretend he was a shutzhund dog and taught him bite work with a milk jug. That is my cousin Edie from Minnesota. She is a pig farmer now and likely has her own tractors.

Here’s Wilbur. This was sometime when I was in junior high. Note the brown hunt coat and sloppy pro hunter rider position even then. I really don’t have that many photos, and couldn’t find any Children’s Jumper ones, but this shows that I was a sloppy rider even at age 12.

This was Richard. He was my resale horse my parents bought when I was 16 very, very cheap. He was how I learned about cheap horses being very cheap usually for a good reason. I got many neat injuries on him and resold him very, very cheap. Circa rust breeches.

He didn’t even jump that well in this photo. I don’t really remember showing him. I bet he was tranquilized. When we gave him a little vacation from arena work (aka, too crazy, try getting him tired on trails), I got a head injury from him dumping me after tearing off down a cliff.

Gumby was my pride and joy, and first resale horse I actually made money on. Penny brought him home from LA, he was 3 years old and just evil. But fancy. I taught him tricks and he was the only horse I regret selling. He was half Hanoverian and half thoroughbred and sort of little.

He was so pretty, moved pretty, and jumped beautifully. You have to sell the resale horses though. He had a long career as “Cakewalk” in the Children’s Hunters and even made it back to my barn at some point as a very valuable little horse. He was still evil though. In the arena, sometimes he would just stop moving just because he could. The kid who owned him had to ride him with a very long whip.

I probably showed him just a little, trying to market him. These were the only photos I could find though. Who took these??

I think that’s Richard Keller. What was he doing there? Gumby sometimes would be walking back from the arena and all of a sudden take off with you just to see if you were paying attention.

Star made me a lot of money. I don’t regret selling him at all. He was hard to ride and kind of mean. He could jump very, very high though. He became a jumper but I don’t remember with who.

Apparently I never wore boots or a helmet when I rode my own horses at Penny’s. I still have that sort of sloppy look when I ride. I never ever ride in pink sneakers anymore.